WATCH OUT FOR CLEVER WOMEN!

Told in both Spanish and English, the stories in this collection celebrate the strength of women as found in the Hispanic folklore of northern New Mexico. The book is beautifully illustrated by Vicki Trego Hill and includes The Day It Snowed Tortillas.

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According to an old saying, Una mujer piensa más en un solo minuto que un hombre en un mes entero—A woman thinks more in a minute than a man does in a whole month. For me, the saying refers to the rich inner life many women developed in Western cultures when so much of the external, active life was denied them. While men were doing business and fighting wars, women were caring for families and thinking deep thoughts. This little collection of Hispanic stories celebrates the quiet strength of women that comes from this thinking.

Like all the stories I tell, these tales are a combination of traditional lore and my own imagination. The traditional part is based on things people tell me and on what I learn from reading the work of folklorists and anthropologists. Most of this material was collected fifty or more years ago, before radio, television and movies began to replace the old stories. My own contribution is based on my instincts as a storyteller and what my experience tells me listeners need in order to feel satisfied with a story. The stories reflect something of my values and sense of humor, as well as the values and humor of Hispanic culture, but not too many conclusions about either one can be drawn from this small selection.

Hispanic tales in the Southwest are almost all of European origin, coming first from Spain to Mexico hundreds of years ago, and then north as Spanish colonists settled in what we now call Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California. Readers who are familiar with world folklore will recognize all the tales in this collection. For example, some may know an Ethiopian variant of “That Will Teach You” from Harold Courlander’s Fire On the Mountain. Many will relate “The Day It Snowed Tortillas,” which has been something of a signature story for me for over a decade, to a well-known Russian folktale. In both of these other versions, however, the resourceful character is a man rather than a woman. That a woman is the clever one in the Hispanic variants reveals something about the attitude toward women and a great deal about the sense of humor. People the world over tell stories of a humble individual tricking an overbearing person of higher status, but the idea is especially cherished in Hispanic storylore. Making the trickster a woman, who would traditionally be thought of as less powerful than a man, adds spice to the trick.

My hope is that readers will find these stories spicy enough that they’ll begin to tell them themselves. And if they do, I invite them to add something from their own imaginations to make the stories even richer.
—Joe Hayes

The introduction to these, bilingual, Spanish/English folktales states that there is an old saying that a woman thinks more in one minute than most men think in an entire month. This pretty much sums up the philosophy expressed in this humorous collection of trickster tales. The tricksters turn out to be clever wives, mothers, daughters and sweethearts, who manage to outwit the villains to save their rather naive or even dumb males. Most of the stories are from the Hispanic tradition of the Southwest, although one tale deals with a Navajo shepherd and his wise mother. One tale, "The Day it Snowed Tortillas" has already been published in an all-English volume with the same title, by Joe Hayes. The illustrations are realistic black and white drawings.

Bookpaper

A bilingual collection of Southwestern folktales with some tricky women teaching people simple lessons. Humor shines through the fabric of these fables, with bad guys finding that the joke is, invariably, on them.

New Mexico Magazine

Our favorite storyteller, Joe Hayes, goes in for a bit of affirmative action in this collection of his Hispanic folktales. Every one of them features a woman heroine, every one of them is presented in Spanish and English, and every one of them is great fun in the best Joe Hayes style.

Byrd Baylor

Here in the Southwest, Joe Hayes is a folk here himself—everybody's favorite teller of tales from our own favorite part of the world.

These lively New Mexico cuentos are written in Joe's voice. You are drawn into a circle around him as you read. I loved the amazingly clever (as well as amazingly tricky) women who manage to save the day in each story.

Benjamin Alire Sáenz

These stories are clear, lovely earthy—as still and as comforting as a smooth stone in the palm of an outstretched hand. As I read through these tales, I was reminded of the fact that a good story teller can always teach us something new about ourselves. If there is joy in simple things, then this book is filled with much joy.